The band must play on

Side-effect
The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and author.
Although it doesn’t augur well for the environment and there are two views about tampering with natural beauty and building concrete monsters in the midst of hills, vales and meadows, in the name of development, Bhurban in the north of Murree has, however, established itself over the years as a favoured hill resort. It has several boarding, lodging and recreational facilities. The place is a respite from both the hot weather of the plains and the congestion of people and cars in the historic tourist attraction of Murree which is just a few miles underneath.
It was in the week following Eid-ul-Fitr when Parks and Horticulture Agency in collaboration with the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab organised the Youth and Family Festival with food, games, shopping and a host of other activities to entertain people visiting Murree and Bhurban besides the local residents. The cricket stadium in Bhurban attracted huge numbers. There was a free and live music concert planned for the next day. The organisers expected even a bigger turnout as they had successfully advertised the event in the whole area and thousands of families had already come on the first day. Folk, classical and contemporary musicians were invited to perform.
The news of the concert angered the local clerics. Some approached the organisers and asked them to cancel the event. They were told that this is in connection with Eid celebrations and providing entertainment to families that have come from far and wide. But the clerics announced that such activities will not be tolerated, there should be a complete ban on such events and they will make sure that it is cancelled. And they did. Announcements were made through loudspeakers to condemn the music concert and the organisers budged.
What is witnessed in Murree and adjoining areas last week is not new to some other parts of Pakistan, particularly Swat and the troubled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. While intellectuals subscribing to enlightened ideas were targeted and killed, singers, artistes and performers were dragged out of their homes and shot or hanged in the city squares. The high-handedness of certain clerics and their disciples knows no bounds. The police, law-enforcing agencies and even the judiciary either refuse, avoid or delay taking any action. They are sometimes given latitude for shying away from their duty by saying that they are also scared for their lives.
This inaction of the responsible institutions of the state is one principal reason that the trend of imposing one’s belief system by force over others is on the rise. But to me it is not just the scare. There is a penetration of a certain ideology and nurturing of a particular mind set among a number of people working for these institutions. Don’t forget that the former governor of Punjab was murdered by his own security detail.
Personnel for these law-enforcing institutions are largely recruited from the working and lower middle classes who despise what they see happening around them. The elite establishment of this country, while enjoying a comfortable, liberal social life in its private spaces, has proactively cultivated orthodoxy and bigotry in the less-privileged society around it for both internal and external reasons. Internal reason is perhaps ideological in nature. Orthodox religiosity brings a certain complacence and contentment towards economic injustice meted out to you. Simply put, a poor woman or a man thinks that his condition is the Almighty’s will.
The other reason was for external purposes. By letting individuals and outfits of coercive and militant nature operate in the cities, towns and villages of Pakistan for some twisted strategic reasons, we have made them strong and big. Without getting into the debate about what is right and wrong, just and unjust in world affairs, let me say what that the states and their agencies do if they want to settle scores with a country outside is to recruit the disgruntled people from that country. We did the opposite by mobilising groups from within our own society to settle issues outside. The legitimacy to extremist individuals and groups was first provided by the establishment’s action and now it is being provided to them by the establishment’s inaction.
What happened in Bhurban and what has happened over the years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is also happening in Karachi. In the heart of a middleclass neighbourhood, one of the senior staffers of this newspaper was attacked for watching television and listening to qawwalis. If not cosmopolitan, the area can safely be termed as a mixed neighbourhood where people belonging to different ethnic and faith groups live. Four men arrived at the house of the journalist and manhandled him. He was treated with hard fists and kicks, abuses were hurled at him and he was threatened to be killed in front of his young sister. The condition for him to be spared was that he must never watch television and never listen to qawwalis again. For listening to music of any kind is an abominable sin and watching television is forbidden. The culprits were identified with the help of the neighbours and they live a street away from his. But the police has neither rounded them up nor committing itself to do that in near future.
These incidents, however, are much less in gravity than what is happening in the length and breadth of the country. I must remind my readers that Shia Muslims are being dragged out of buses and killed. This year has seen two such incidents in northern Pakistan. Members of the Shia-Hazara community are murdered and assaulted day in and day out in Quetta. Others belonging to the Shia community in cities including Lahore and Karachi are targeted individually at the wish and will of the extremists.
The places of worship of different Muslim sects, Ahmadis and Christians are bombed and attacked. Scores of innocent citizens lose their lives in these mindless acts of violence. Our soldiers and military installations are blatantly attacked. None of the three forces has been spared. A man was burnt alive recently in Bahawalpur on charges of blasphemy and a minor Christian girl is imprisoned in Islamabad on the same charges. However, what I am saying here gets repeated by some of us all the time in our talks and our writings.
So should we keep repeating ourselves and keep asking for sanity to prevail? Should we keep asking for creating a tolerant, inclusive and pluralistic society? Should we keep asking for quality education for all our children? Should we keep asking for health facilities for all our citizens? Should we keep asking for food security and employment for all our families? Should we keep asking for peace and stability? Should we keep asking for social justice? Could we afford to be tired, exhausted and dismayed because no silver lining is on the horizon?
I think we should. One hundred years ago, Titanic sank into the depths of the Atlantic. When the ship was sinking and the passengers waited on the deck to jump on the lifeboats, Wallace Hartley, the violinist band leader, with his seven men, continued to play the orchestra. Those men could have jumped on the boats as well but they preferred to soothe the nerves of the anxious and panicked passengers. It was not in the line of duty. It was a duty they took upon themselves to fulfil.

Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com